In that vein, I'd like to bring to the attention of the People a proposal that has been in the works, building on an idea that was germinated by Fabia Livia and Apollonius Cordus and hammered into (somewhat) presentable form by myself, Gn. Iulius Caesar, Apollonius Cordus, and Lucretius Agricola.  The Curule Aediles, together with the Plebeian Aediles, would like to present this to you, the People, in preparation for it being presented to our Conscript Fathers.

For the record, I am quoting my own comments from other discussion Lists; they are based on several conversations with many people, and are presented in an abridged format.
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I.  An Aedilician Fund is hereby established for initiatives by Provinces and private citizens in Nova Roma, under  the authority of the Curule and Plebeian Aediles.

II.  This fund will be maintained as part of the Nova Roma bank account, rather than in a separate account so that:
       A.  people can use money orders and the Nova Roma PayPal account to make donations in the same way as they pay taxes or make and other donation to Nova Roma,
       B.  it will not be necessary to transfer funds to the country in which the current Aediles live, and
       C.  citizens residing in the United States will have the opportunity to deduct any such donations on their taxes.

III.  Money in the Aedilician Fund will be used specifically to support face-to-face activities which either promote Nova Roma or Roman culture to non-citizens or foster a sense of community among existing citizens.

IIII.  Applications shall come to the Aediles through the Provincial Governors on behalf of private citizens or groups of private citizens, or on behalf of one or more Provinces as a whole.   To encourage inter-Provincial activities, Governors of different Provinces may make joint applications.  A proposal shall include as a minimum:
       A.   the amount of money requested,
       B.   the intended date, time, and expected duration of the activity, and
       C.   a detailed description of how the money will be spent.

V.  The Aediles will jointly approve or deny any request of monies from the Aedilician Fund by means of a vote, the decision being made by simple majority; in the case of a tie, the Aediles will choose one of their number to cast lots in order to break the tie.

VI.  Any money granted on the application of (a) Governor(s) in accordance with the purpose of this Fund shall be considered a loan. Once a loan is approved by the Aediles, an agreement will be drawn up between the Aediles and the Governor which will outline the specifics of the loan.
        A.  any Governor(s) whose application is approved shall present the Aediles with a written accounting of the distribution of that money.  This accounting, with a final balance report, is to be presented on a date set by the Aediles at the time the money is loaned, and will be no more than sixty (60) days from the conclusion of the activity for which the money was loaned.
            1.  if the activity generates enough income to repay the loan, the Governor(s) will repay it in full , and repayment will accompany the final accounting report presented to the Aediles.
            2 .  if if the activity generates a profit the Governor(s) will repay the Aedilician Fund the amount of the loan plus ten percent (10%)  of any profit, and repayment will accompany the final accounting report presented to the Aediles.
            3.  if the activity does not make enough money to repay the loan, the loan will be written off.
        B.  a Governor who presents an application to the Fund accepts personal liability for any repayments due under article VI.A, and the use of the Fund made by a Governor is subject to supervision by the Senate as part of the general conduct of his office.

VII.  A cap of five hundred United States dollars (US$500.00), or instruments which equal that amount, is placed upon any request for monies from the Aedilician Fund.

VII.  The administration of the Aedilician Fund will be shared by one (1) quaestor assigned to the Plebeian Aediles and one (1) quaestor assigned to the Curule Aediles, and who will be appointed and supervised by the Aediles.  The quaestors will create a quarterly report detailing all monies received and granted to be presented to the Aediles on the kalends of Martius, Iunius, September, and December; the Aediles will create a year-end report shall be made to the Senate of Nova Roma on or before the ides of Decembris.  These reports will be available for all citizens to read.
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I am proposing a NEW Aedilician Fund.

Here is the current one:     http://www.novaroma.org/tabularium/senate/2003-07-25.html

As you can see, on paper it's fine, but in reality it's just the Magna Mater fund. No other project has ever been funded from this fund. I doubt whether it was ever intended that the fund should be used for anything other than the Magna Mater project. However that may be, none of the money currently sitting in the fund can ever be used for anything other than the Magna Mater fund. Much of that money, perhaps all of it, has been donated through the Nova Roma website, specifically through a banner which used to be on the website sayng
"Donate to the Magna Mater Project".

The money donated via that banner will have gone into the aedilician fund, and the treasury records indicate  that no effort has ever been made to separate the money donated specifically for the Magna Mater project from the money in the fund which is theoretically available to other projects.

It is both contrary to the terms of the Senatus Consultum and also illegal under the charity law of most  countries to use donated money for any purpose other than that for which it was donated. Since we can't tell how much of the $1,663 in the fund was not donated specifically to the Magna Mater fund, we can never legally use any of that money for any other purpose. It's basically just the Magna Mater fund now, and can never be anything else.

Even on paper, it has its drawbacks. A proposed project must be approved by the senate. That's fine for big, long-term projects like the Magna Mater project, but the sorts of thing we were talking about in Rome were small projects which just need a quick injection of capital. The Senate is a purposefully deliberative body, and if every tiny donation has to be approved by a Senatus Consultum the fund will be practically useless, as is demonstrated by the fact that no one has ever tried to use it in its current form. And, if people did try to use it for the sort of thing we were talking about, the Senate would be in permanent session voting on whether to give $20 to N. Negidius to buy a spear &c.  Moreover, the only people authorized to propose a project to the Senate to be funded out of the fund are the aediles curules themselves. that doesn't really benefit ordinary citizens.

The fund would be administered by all four aediles, together with their quaestores (it would give aedilician quaestores something financial to do). The aediles could disburse moneys from the fund at their own discretion, probably by majority decision, without seeking the approval of the senate every time. The purpose of the fund would be strictly delineated: it would exist to support face-to-face activities which either promote Nova Roma or Roman culture to non-citizens or foster a sense of community among existing citizens. To ensure the financial accountability of the recipients, only provincial governors could apply, and though they could of course do so on behalf of private citizens they themselves, as governors, would be held responsible for any embezzlement or irresponsible use of moneys given out. To encourage inter-provincial activities, governors of difference provinces could make joint applications. The governor(s) would have to show the aediles an account of the money spent so that the aediles could be satisfied that it had been spent on what it was meant to be spent on. In order to stop provinces or groups of citizens becoming dependent on the fund for hand-outs, it would not be used to fund any regular events which would have been held anyway, such as regular provincial meetings or the European conventus, but only for things which would not be feasible without the funding from the aediles. If any profits were made from a funded activity the money paid by the aediles would be regarded as a loan repayable at some reasonable rate of interest, but if no profits were made (or not enough to repay in full) then the money would be counted as a gift. This would encourage provincial activities to make themselves essentially self-funding, with the aedilician fund providing only start-up costs and occasional injections of capital for unusually expensive one-off events (remember, for example, that the Spanish legion took a long time to get off the ground because the members couldn't afford to buy their own kit - the fund could help grass-roots project with start-up costs like that). It would also bring money back into the fund and help to make it self-sustaining.

The idea also has some collateral advantages. It would  restore some of  what's missing from the office at the moment - the fact that historically its main purpose was to spend lots of money on things that would make the aediles popular. The fund would give the aediles money to spend, and would make them a focus for the gratitude of the recipients, just like in the old days. That in turn would make the office more worth holding politically, and might encourage more people to run for it. It would also make the office of aedile particularly
associated with grass-roots, face-to-face events, which would make the office a bit less 'virtual' - its primary association at the moment is, of course, with online 'pretend' games. It would also mean that every year there would be four specific magistrates responsible for supervising and promoting the face-to-face, community-building, 'real'-world aspect of Nova Roma, which at the moment only gets pushed if some magistrate happens to put it on his agenda. Finally, it would mean that people who have held the office of aedile (and aedilician
quaestor) would come out of it with genuinely useful experience for higher office - managing discretionary finances and engaging with the activities and interests of ordinary citizens.

Just to be clear, the current Magna Mater Project will not be touched in any way, save to "officially" assign all money currently now in the existing "Aedilician Fund" to a newly named "Magna Mater Fund".

The new "Aedilician Fund" will consist of donations, no State money will be used, unless the Senate is asked to grant it "seed" money to start --- but from there on it is simply donations.

Valete bene,

Cato